Why I prefer human-readable file formats

2025-08-04

When I say human-readable file format, I'm referring to text-based files that can be opened, read, and understood without the need for any specific software or proprietary interface. They include formats like Markdown, JSON, YAML, INI, TOML, CSV/TSV and even fixed-width text files where the content and its structure are visible, transparent, and editable in a simple text editor. Unlike binary formats or database dumps, these files don't hide their meaning behind layers of abstraction. They're built for clarity, for resilience, and for people who like to know what's going on under the hood. [...]

The charm of ASCII smileys :-)

2025-07-19

Nowadays, it's easy to forget about ASCII smileys. These simple text faces were the first way to show feelings online. They have a special place in the history of the internet and in my heart. [...]

Unicode characters for Creative Commons symbols

2025-07-07

I've just discovered that there are symbols since Unicode 13.0 for CC licences! 🅭🅯🄏 [...]

So much money to protect nations… from the people who need help

2025-05-31

The world is turning into something I don’t recognise, and certainly not something I like. [...]

Block non-human crawlers with lighttpd

2025-04-20

Recently, I've put a copy of some ZIM files online with kiwix-server. I posted the url of this site on the Fediverse and, a few days later, the little server was a bit overloaded. The logs showed that the site was being crawled by search engines and AI training bots. There was no reason to let them. A robots.txt file calmed some, but not others. [...]

I haven't found the right tool to build a smolweb site, yet

2025-04-08

There are plenty of tools out there to build static websites such as Hugo, Zola, Pelican, Publii… they're powerful and well-made. But they all assume you're building your site locally. You install them on your computer, write and edit your content there, and then push the result to a server. That's fine if you always write from the same machine. But I don't. I write from different devices, depending on where I am and what I have on hand, so relying on a local setup doesn't fit my workflow. [...]

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